Australia, New Zealand and the British invaded Turkey on April 25, 1915. The invasion was an unmitigated disaster and Allied troops eventually left achieving none of their gains and leaving thousands of dead behind.
To Australia, the landing site at Gallipoli is a near sacred place, and thousands of us make the journey there to pay our respects to the fallen. There is hardly a town in Australia that doesn't have a statue of a soldier of the time and a list of those who went and died there.
In an extraordinary gesture of generosity towards his country's enemies Ataturk said this after the war to the families of those still buried there: "Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us, where they lie, side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well."
Few Australians can read this and not get a lump in their throat.
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